Morning journal and courier., 1887-09-20
A NEW DEPAR TURF
Of Work in the New Haven Young WOmeA's Christian Association. A

WOmen's Christian Association.
 Nothing pertaining to life is of greater consequence than health, and in all health questions food is an important factor. Proper diet is of as mulch importance to a sick man as medicine; nor is it less vital necessity in health. But such rules and methods have erept into the management of our homes, especially into the culinary department, that doctors are more frequently obliged to at
 tribute the cause of suffering in their patients
 to what they have or have not eaten than 10
 any and perhaps all other causes.
 In olden times the wife and mother in a family was usually the cook. And as the surest way to please and conciliate everyone, from the head of the family to the baby, is to provide food tempting to the palate, and
 can be done most easily by disregarding true wholesomeness. We can see how the
 mothers, the good and wise mothers we have
 honored all through the past, were
 led unconsciously to entail upon suc- ceeding generations the habit of pleasing the appetite rather than consulting good sense. And American women of these times-t'a pity 'tis 'tis true'' have added to the difficulty by ignoring the importance of informing themselves upon culinary arts. Any "good, strong, honest girl" who has crossed the ocean, no matter where she came from or how ignorant she may be of all true, cleanlY, sensible methods of preparing the food upon which life, health, and comfort depend, is made sole mistress of the kitchen, and is often left to decide what shall be eaten well as how it shall be prepared. And the most perplexing part of the question is this; the intelligent, cultured mistress of the home does not know how to teach her domestic better principles and methods; and if she does, in ninety-nine cases out of 8 hundred the servant claims to know best. This is painful and deplorable truth, but it describes the domestic condition of multitudes of our New England city homes; where there is an excep- tion the wife and mother is usually found acting as her own domestic. More than one cause has contributed to this disastrous state of things. But the main one is the fact that our daughters have not been educated in housekeeping; what they have not learned to do they cannot do and cannot direct others in doing; they are not even qualified to fill an emergency or detect the causes of failures. A young, inexperienced housekeeper may and often does find herself completely overwhelm- ed with difficulties and failures due to an incompetent servant, and which an occasional day of practice in her mothers kitchen or 8 course of good instruction in cooking might have wholly averted.
 In other cities ladies have been opening
 
 managers of our Young Womens Christian association, recognizing a similar need in New Haven, have recently secured an excep- tionally good teacher, graduated from cook ing school in Boston; and they have fitted up kitchen in the Home, 12S Chapel street., in the most approved manner, thus providing a rare opportunity for learning the real art of cookery. Miss Poison has proved to the en- tire satisfaction of the managers of the Home, ard of all who have attended her classes, that she understands her profession. She has awakened in her pupils most enthusiastic
 interest in what she teaches. Her instruction comprises everything pertaining to the per-
 formance and conducting of kitchen work from the making of 8 fire to perfect cleansing of the dishpan, as also the cooking of numberless dishes, from plain boiled pota- toes to choice delicate desserts and confec-
 tions. Every scholar has part in the work. It is not theories alone, but practice, learning to cook by cooking, with an understanding
 of the attendant processes and principles One great value of Mss Polson's instruction
 IS the economy she enforces, showing how to
 use in one way or another every morsel of
 good material. combining in tempting and
 healthful food such articles as careless cooks
 after making any new dish in the
 class, to repeat the process at home and bv thus putting her knowledge into practice
 remember what has been learned. and when failing return to the teacher for the remedy. In the few weeks since the classes were opened nearly seven hundred successful ex- periments at home have been reported to the teacher.
 The ordinary classes receive twenty les sons, in which instruction is given in almost every variety of common heaIthful food. be- side delicate preparations for iuvalids, In addition private lessons are given upon spe- cia land more elaborate dishes. Short extra
 courses at higher rates are also added for the
 benefit of classes wishing more than twenty
 lessons. Some classes are formed for which
 little more than the cost of materials is charged, and for all the classes the tuition is
 reasonable and satisfactory. When the ben
 eits of the school are fully realized it is be-
 ieved there will be no lack of appreciative
 patronage.
 In behalf of the New Haven wv. CA, MRS. H. ID Hrrn1r